Commentary : Variations on a Marketing Scheme : Music: Themed programs with snappy titles are designed to draw bigger audiences to Orange County classical concerts. But is there meaningful entertainment there--or merely hype?

Cleverly titled concert programs are shaping up as the rage of the ‘90s. But like the bell-bottoms of the ‘70s, some fit beautifully while others are, well, less than flattering.

The Pacific Symphony recently attempted to entice patrons with a “Voyage to 2001” concert. The Pacific Chorale offered a program titled “An American Landscape in Song.” And the Mozart Camerata has a “French Kiss” in store for spring.

Are such titles meaningful? Are they in good taste? Do they insult the intelligence of the aficionado, patronize the novitiate--or both?

And, artistic guidepost or sales hype, musical boon or boondoggle, where did those blurbs come from, anyway?

“We’ve gone into title marketing,” explained Louis G. Spisto, executive director of the Pacific Symphony, which introduced titled programs to its regular classical season brochures this year. “In any kind of advertising, it is most important to get people’s attention. We only want them to read further. All it is is a title.”

Music director Ami Porat, who has employed clever program titles since the inception of his Mozart Camerata in 1985, explained why such marketing tools are needed now more than ever.

“In classical music right now,” Porat said, “it’s circle your wagons and make your last stand.”

Pacific Chorale marketing director Jim Gilliam explained how his group comes up with names for its programs: “They fit the theme,” he said.

If Gilliam seemed to be stating the obvious, that’s because for most music lovers, he was. If a title fits a theme, it serves as a guidepost; it’s a boon. If not, it quickly descends into the realm of hype.

Consider “Voyage to 2001,” so called because one of the works on the Pacific Symphony agenda, Richard Strauss’ “Also sprach Zarathustra,” was featured in the film “2001: A Space Odyssey.” The program also included a Mozart violin concerto and Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries.”

Imagine “Platoon” as the title for a program featuring Barber’s Adagio for Strings.

Spisto pointed out that there was, however tenuous, more of a theme than met the eye.

“ ‘Voyage’ . . . ‘ride’--get it?” he asked.

The Pacific Symphony’s “Primo Piano” (for concerts Wednesday and Dec. 16) connotes only that the program includes a piano concerto--Brahms’ first --but other titles do make forays into cleverness: “Finale Fantastique” concludes with Berlioz’s “Symphonie fantastique” and is the last concert of the orchestra’s season.

So what constitutes a theme, and where does truth in musical labeling begin? Can the FDA’s push for labeling accuracy be extended to the concert hall?

“The title must clearly emanate from the program,” Porat said. “If it emanates from the music and also has marketing value, then it has double value. But always the origin is musical. It has a marketing side benefit.”

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Pacific Symphony has employed theme marketing tactics for summer concerts at Irvine Meadows devoted to works of a single composer, such as “Bravo Beethoven” and “Tchaikovsky Spectacular.” The Mozart Camerata’s upcoming “Happy Birthday Mozart” (Jan. 16) and Orange County Chamber Orchestra’s “Wonderful Wolfgang” (May 15) deliver what they promise--whole programs by one composer.

The two smaller orchestras venture into inventive programming with mixed but often provocative results.

In “Bach and Forth,” for instance, Porat made a case last season for a musical connection among works by Mendelssohn, the Viennese composer Vanhall and two of Bach’s sons. Porat maintains that the works, written in a span of less than 30 years, offer frameworks all traceable to the obvious influence of J.S. Bach.

Porat’s “French Kiss” (May 15) offers works by two French composers as well as two non-French, one of whom penned his work in Paris under the influence of French teachers. The other was Dvorak, a Czech. Porat cheerfully justified the choice: “When you make candy you have to put a pinch of salt for contrast,” he said.

Micah Levy’s ideas are likewise hit and miss: The OCCO’s “A Halloween Concert: Treats and Tricks,” included Gershwin’s “Lullaby,” he said, because “if you can get children to go to sleep, that’s a treat.” But “A Celebration of Nature” (March 27) seems a sure hit as titles go. On the program: Saint-Saens’ “Carnival of the Animals”; Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumble Bee”; Vaughan Williams “The Lark Ascending”; Haydn’s Symphony No. 83, “The Hen,” and a commissioned work by Jeff Rona, “Requiem for a Defunct Species.”

“Our early concerts were a mix,” Levy said, “but they all started to look the same. Baroque, Classical, Romantic, it was like having green marbles, red marbles, blue marbles--by different manufacturers but still always red, blue and green marbles. (With theme programs) I get the variety I want, and they don’t all look the same.”

Groups with tiny followings have also put obvious thought into programming and program titles. Harmonia Baroque Players’ “Two of a Kind” (Feb. 6) features music for paired recorders, harpsichords and cellos, while “Women of the Baroque” (April 17) offers music by and about women of the 18th Century.

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Spisto says he employs marketing titles only to attract newcomers to the Pacific Symphony.

“The tricky thing in marketing these events is that you’re marketing to two very different groups,” he said. “Title marketing draws those who do not know very much about music. We list the program for those who do.”

The camerata’s Porat says he aims for titles that intrigue neophytes as well as seasoned concert-goers.

“We have a two-prong program in Orange County,” he said. “We have to build an audience from among the uninitiated, but we have to satisfy and delight the connoisseurs as well. A program with multiple symmetries, that satisfies both, is often the most interesting.”

Of course, canny title marketing can appeal to both.

The Pacific Chorale’s “An American Landscape of Song” recently delivered vocal works, Gilliam noted, “from one end of the nation to the other”; there wasn’t a hackneyed work among them, and Gilliam said he considered the 1,500 seats sold “very good” for an a capella program. “A Glorious Celebration of Christmas (Dec. 19) and “Choral Treasures of France” (April 23) also offer lesser-known music in a format with broad appeal.

The Orange County Philharmonic Society has shied from using titles. “Not to say we wouldn’t at some point, but being a presenter, and not producing our own programs, sometimes programs change,” executive director Dean Corey pointed out.

The bottom line? If there is a theme, a unifying or provocative aspect, go for it. If there isn’t, a concert featuring a certain sonata by Beethoven alongside works by Bach and Brahms needn’t be billed “Moonlight!” to be a success.

The hope is that the success of a concert is still based on sound, not sound bites.